eocron is a new cyberpunk themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The four starting character classes are private eye, spy, psi monk and tank. Players pick their characters' looks by mixing and matching preset heads, jackets and pants. The characters then begin their lives in the city of Neocron, which is a high-tech wonder layered over with dark and dirt, trash and rodents. There is a subway, but most travel is done on foot or by teleporting by way of the GenReps.
After choosing a class, characters pick a faction to work for. These are companies and government agencies and crime families who control the city and the world. They are a source of missions and resources that the player can use to build the character up to the point where it can become an effective member of the community. The character begins with some clothes, an apartment, a rudimentary weapon and a little cash. There are several types of beginning missions, but the most time- and cost-effective ones are killing vermin in the sewers.
There is a lot to learn to play Necron effectively, but certain tools help ease the process. Right from the start, characters will use NavRay, a pull-down menu that allows the player to select from various common destinations. Doing so causes a green path to light up in the game world itself. The player can then simply follow the arrows to the character's destination.
Another tool that quickly comes into use is the GenReps system. When a character dies, the player can choose to have it appear at the preregistered terminal in its apartment, or any other GenReps terminal where the character is registered. The character's belongings can also follow along for a small fee. GenReps can also be used to teleport from any terminal to any other terminal where the character is registered.
The last vital tool in Neocron are items called LoM (loss of memory) pills. Using these, players can redistribute their characters' skill points. Thus, players can experiment with different skills and if they don't like them, they can move the points to other skills they might prefer. LoM pills cost about $1,500, which makes large switches expensive, but the pills are found in great numbers as the droppings of various carnivorous plants in the lower sections of the city sewers.
In cyberspace, it's kill or be killed
It is a good beginning to a game when the baseline character is the private eye. Visions of a world full of Rick Deckards fill the mind. And that isn't too far from the truth ... if Rick got his start hunting rats in the sewers before he graduated to being a blade runner. There are other ways to gain experience in Neocron, but fighting and killing things is a vital part of the game, and the sooner players starts getting good at it, the longer their characters will survive.
Unlike many MMORPGs, which set aside certain servers for players who want to try to kill other players' characters, all the Necron servers allow so-called "player killing." New characters start the game with a Law Enforcement Implant. This keeps them from killing or being killed by other
player characters, but it decreases the experience they earn for fighting and for completing missions. The player can remove the character's implant at any time, and they usually remove it immediately. Being without a LE chip is not a death sentence; very few players will kill other characters without being provoked. Death can be annoying, but, because of the GenReps, it is not crippling, as the penalties for leaving the chip in are.
The combination of the GenReps units and the LoM pills solves two of the biggest problems with RPGs in general and MMORPGs in particular. The amount of time spent walking from place to place in any role-playing or adventure game gets numbing very quickly. The scenery just isn't that interesting by
the eighth time through, and the chances of an encounter aren't high enough to make the journey worthwhile. Thus, the ability to teleport from place to place, particularly once the character gets registered at the various outposts outside the city, is a piece of design genius.
The other big problem with RPGs is that the good ones are so large and complex that it often takes two or three attempts to find a character that strikes the right balance between what the player wants to do and what the system allows. Although players are probably still going to need a couple characters to get the hang of the politics and layout of Neocron, the LoM pills' ability to shift skill points means that if the player creates character they like in every way except for how its skills are arranged, they can fix that without having to start over.
Neocron has a large and multilingual support community. There are several fan-created sites with tips and aid to get new players started. I had to do some stumbling about on my own first, but once I had that grounding, all the help made the game much more fun.
— Eric B.
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